Crying for the Moon

A Novel

Meet Maureen Brennan, a young woman coming of age in late 1960s St. John's, NFLD. There is no one like Maureen, the second youngest daughter of the Sarge, a mother so bitter, so angry about her fate that she bullies her children and her husband. School is torture, with the nuns watching every move she makes. Maureen wants to go to sexy, exciting Montreal and be part of Expo 67, even if it means faking her way into the school choir. Once there, Maureen escapes the vigilant eye of Sister Imobilis and sneaks out into the city.

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Contrary to those who prefer to read with rose coloured glasses, I read this book to the end.Although I must admit, at one point, I too was getting a little tired of the rough talk, I felt it was realistic for far too many young girls to this day and a story that needs to be told for a whole variety of reasons. I would definitely recommend reading this book all the way to the surprise ending. I give it 4 stars.

After hearing Mary Walsh on CBC talking about this book, I was really looking forward to reading it. Major disappointment! As another reviewer commented, I could not finish this and was wondering what other possible traumas and indignities could happen to Maureen, the main character. Stick to comedy writing, Mary!

Dysfunctional family, community and an angry adolescent who never seems to get out of this hell hole. The dust jacket said it was sometimes funny. I failed to see the humour. It rates up there with "Mercy for the Children" and "Fall on your Knees" that Canadiana genre of hopeless stories of life in east cost rural villages.

Maureen comes from a working class family in St John's, Newfoundland. She's a senior in a Catholic parochial high school.

Even though she can't sing she fakes her way into the school choir so she can travel as part of the group to Montreal and perform at Expo '67, the world's fair taking place there in 1967.

As soon as she arrives, her and a girlfriend go AWOL and hit the Montreal nightlife. Before you can say " G'wan with cha" she gets drunk and wakes up in a strange hotel room having lost her virginity as well as her girlfriend.

Evidently not big deal.

She goes back to the hotel, don't know that she ever performs at Expo, but the next night is out looking for her girlfriend in the same bars and has sex with another, more or less anonymous guy all the while not enjoying it one bit, which makes this reader wonder why she does it?

Not wanting to hang around with someone she hardly knows she ends up at yet another bar, gets dead drunk and has sex with an "old man".

Back home and back at Catholic school in St. John's she throws up on a nun's habit and is announced pregnant and kicked out of school. Her mother, the "Sarge" tells her she isn't going to sit around so she gets a part time job in a discount store where all the other employees hate her.

There's more, but none of it has any motivation, there's little character development - it is just one grim situation after another.

Why would a "good" girl attending a Catholic school, suddenly go on a sex and drinking binge just because she's away from home?

I never found out because I abandoned Crying for the Moon after three chapters. Blame it on a really unsympathetic character and an inability to suspend disbelief.

This is a good example of a "celebrity book". The publisher knows the author's fame in other endeavours, in this case Mary Walsh being somewhat of an comic icon in Canada, will sell enough books to make a profit.

Maybe stick to comedy, Mary, or was this book supposed to be a joke and I just didn't get it?

A picture of growing up in an alcoholic, abusive environment that the protagonist perpetuates in her own life. Maybe realistic, but I don't see the point. I found it hard to follow the characters and the story line seemed inconsequential. Certainly not a humorous book.

I was very disappointed in this book. I guess I'm used to better writing and more poetic language from Newfoundland writers. Could not empathize with the main character at all. The story seemed forced.

Did Not Finish (DNF) If you require trigger warnings - this book is not for you. I made it to page 32 and stopped. Physical abuse, rape, sexual assault, predatory pedophiles, drugs...non-stop on every page for the 32 pages I could read. Not for me at this time. Wondering when the "funny" and light kicks in? It's almost as though Walsh is trying to hard to shock/destroy her readers.